Until now I've been doing stories from books. Now I'm going to turn to a DVD and the TV series Unsolved Mysteries. These come from the fourth disc of the Unsolved Mysteries: Ghosts DVD set.

Of course we all know about Gettysburg. Those of us from the US had to learn about it in school for years. And while I can't say that those of us who aren't from the US learned about it in school, I would say that those joining this forum have studied the American Civil War at least a little and are familiar with. And certainly there are those of us who have heard that the battlefield is haunted. In fact Darryl graced us with a story from his first trip to Gettysburg.

It's not been unheard of for re-enactors to have encounters on the battlefield. One such re-enactor was a man named Ray Hock. Hock and another re-enactor were taking a break from a Gettysburg re-enactment when they were approached by what appeared to be another re-enactor. The man was dressed in period outfit and gear, naturally not uncommon for re-enactors. But this man's clothing and gear looked even more period accurate than both men were used to. It looked to Hock like the guy wasn't wearing and carrying reproduction uniform and equipment but rather the period original stuff. Hock says this man smelled heavily of sulfur and looked tired. The figure approached the two men, asking them if it was a hard day. He then proceeded to give each man what appeared to be authentic live cartridges even though live rounds are banned on the battlefield today. The men looked at the rounds in their hands and when they looked up the man was gone. There was no sign of him anywhere, as if he'd vanished into thin air. Hock took the cartridges to a university for examination and says they determined that the cartridges, right down to the minie ball and powder inside, were authentic to the Civil War.

The story then moves on to the hunt for the wounded during the battle. Search parties went out each night looking for the day's wounded and host Robert Stack says that some of the searchers may still be carrying on their duties to this day. In '93 a group of friends who had been witness to the 130th anniversary re-enactment were out walking the battlefield at night along a creek called Bloody Run. Richard Knapp, one of the re-enactors and a member of the group, and his wife discovered the body of a man, which Knapp describes as more of a hazy mist. The figure looked to be in pain, probably a wounded soldier. His brother David would go with a group to an area called the Slaughter Pen. David says he could hear cannon shots and drumrolls and men marching, and one member of his group saw a ghostly figure. All this activity caused David to tell the group it was time for them to leave.

The story then ends with the surgeons of Gettysburg and the field hospital at Pennsylvania Hall. Today Pennsylvania Hall serves as the central administrative building for Gettysburg College, so it is little wonder that the story ends with a pair of school administrators. They boarded the elevator close to midnight one night preparing to leave the school after work years ago. They were the last ones in the building that day. One of them pressed the button for the ground floor, but instead they found themselves going to the basement. Their thoughts at this point were that there was someone else in the building, in the basement, who had called for the elevator and it was going there instead of letting them off on the 1st floor. But when the door opened they found themselves transported to another time as they witnessed the surgeons of a hundred years before hard at work tending to the wounded. The to administrators claimed they could smell the stench that went along with the field hospital. They were only able to escape their ordeal only after one of the orderlies beseechingly turned to them. Stack reveals that they have never submitted to a formal interview, but the night of there ordeal they did tell the story to a campus security officer, a Timon Linn who does say that the two were obviously frightenedby something. Linn says he doesn't himself believe in ghosts but he does believe the administrators saw something because they are credible people.